Step by Step. Day by Day.

Hi there! Hope your Monday was kind to you! We have been busting our behinds to get things in check and the Kitchen has been the beast of the to-do list. We added some reclaimed wood to add some interest on the window wall, laid down some new floors (temp), and refinished the hardware on the doors leading to the mudroom. We have been in process of refinishing the cabinet doors and replacing the hardware when Joey brought to my attention everything looked a little too white, and drab.

As I looked around our completely horrific mess of a kitchen, it hit me! Resort to the moodboard, something is missing.

Ahhhh, yes. The color! Where were we going to add that red without it screaming retro kitchen or country barn?

The door into the mudroom was the perfect choice! With some simple tools and the patience of a saint, we transformed the boring white, into a vibrant and fun focal point.

First we taped off the doors to spare the glass any blood like stains.

Then we carefully selected the color, Glidden Door and Trim Gel, in classic red. Next was to review a three pack of Purdy Paint brushes. We chose the 1.5" for this project. Gel is tricky when it comes to using a brush again, and we figured this was the brand to test it on.

The process went something like this: Dip brush. Paint. Gasp! The gel and Purdy paint brush combo - awesome call when all was said and done. The first layer of paint on the door looks like someone smeared blood over a white wall. It's really scary until you get that second layer on. It's oil based so we had to wait eight hours in-between. Those eight hours were painful. Oil is a beast to work with.

The paint brush was SUPER easy to work with. Not a single stray brush hair, and it held up to the weight of the gel quite nice. It also cut better than any brush we used before. It took a lot of paint thinner and cloths, but the brush was totally save-able! Even with such thick oil based gel. Pretty awesome. Tomorrow we are going to show you what the brushes look like after oil vs. after latex paint.

We also had this super gross problem to solve. This is a week of build up. See the mudroom had these tiles before we put the glossy white floors down and it crept into the kitchen a bit. When we laid down the floors in the kitch, we didn't properly merge the door frame with the floors, hence the gross canal build up of life every week.

Luckily a simple strip of painted wood solved that problem. We simply nailed it into the floor and made sure the door can glide over it easily. Now for some paint thinner and goo-gone, and the door frame will look good as new!

So the door is done and dried and we really dig her. Perhaps this is a step in convincing Joey we should paint our front door something bold and fun! If you look hard at the pictures above you can sneak a peek at the newly finished cabinets we have going on. Yep, we are 70% up! Though the door wasn't technically part of the list, it feels good to add a little bonus to the room. The cabinets on the other hand are going to be the best thing ever to check off! The sink and counters will be here soon! I have the perfect title for that post....